‘A clear and immediate danger’

In a complaint filed Thursday, the office of Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden calls abortionist Timothy F. Liveright a “clear and immediate danger to the public,” while citing him for unprofessional, incompetent, and negligent conduct.

The official complaint came a day after two former Delaware Planned Parenthood nurses leveled serious charges at Liveright, who surrendered his Delaware medical license last month. He told The News Journal of Delaware the charges were “scandalous” and denied wrongdoing.

The complaint alleges that, among other things, Liveright sexually harassed women and overdosed patients. It also charges him with negligence leading to the hospitalization of several patients in February and March of this year. The 68-year-old abortionist has 20 days to respond.

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Deputy Attorney General Katisha D. Fortune signed the complaint issued by Delaware’s Department of Justice, which is headed up by the son of Vice President Joe Biden.

On Wednesday, Joyce Vasikonis and Jayne Mitchell-Werbrich, who both worked with Liveright, told a panel of Delaware lawmakers that Planned Parenthood centers in Wilmington and Dover were “an absolute nightmare.” They drew specific attention to Liveright, accusing him of rushing through patients at a “dangerous speed” and often conducting procedures in unsanitary conditions.

Mitchell-Werbrich, a nurse for 26 years, said she once asked him why he was in a hurry, and he said he needed go oversee repairs to his private plane. “Lives were in jeopardy because he decided he was going to take care of his airplane,” she said.

Liveright joins a growing list of abortionists accused or convicted of dangerous or illegal practices, including Kermit Gosnell, LeRoy Carhart, Cesare Santangelo, and Douglas Karpen. Liveright said he does not intend to practice again in Delaware, but he holds licenses in several other states, including Florida, California, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and New Jersey.

Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, is self-regulated in Delaware. State Sen. Greg Lavelle, a Republican, told me that needs to change: “Every business in the state of Delaware would love to be self-accrediting and self-regulating, but from what I can tell only one is, and it’s Planned Parenthood.”

Lavelle and state Sen. Robert Venerables, a Democrat, co-sponsored legislation in 2011 that would have established procedures and oversight to the abortion industry in the state, but it was killed in committee. Venerables said Wednesday’s hearing probably wouldn’t have been necessary if lawmakers had passed that legislation, but too many were worried it would create hospital requirements for abortion providers.

“You know, that wouldn’t be too bad,” Venerables told me. “Maybe now some of the legislators [who] thought my legislation was too stringent and trusted Planned Parenthood to do what they should have been doing will realize that you can’t trust them.”

Lavelle said he doesn’t see how Delaware can ignore the problem any longer: “Abortion is legal in this country, but that doesn’t mean you can’t address the issues surrounding the procedure of abortion.”

Both nurses, who are pro-abortion, tried unsuccessfully for months to get the attention of state officials. They said the Planned Parenthood problems extend far beyond abortion procedures and Timothy Liveright. While Planned Parenthood’s Wilmington office temporarily suspended surgical abortions, they resumed doing so last week, with the center reportedly operating as usual.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, said, as an industry leader, Planned Parenthood should take ownership of the current problems: “Rather than attack their former employees for exposing Gosnell-like unsafe and unsanitary conditions, they should spend their time going through their facilities nationwide in order to get to the root of this problem and protect women.”

Mitchell-Werbrich said she believes Planned Parenthood should be completely shut down. “No one should go there,” she said. “It’s not fair to the patients not to know.”

J.C. Derrick

J.C. is a reporter in WORLD's Washington Bureau. He spent 10 years covering sports, higher education, and politics for the Longview News-Journal and other newspapers in Texas before joining WORLD in 2012. Follow J.C. on Twitter @jcderrick1.